Lul de Faltenin

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection AlcoolsThemes Love, SadnessPeriod 20th century

Sirens I crawled toward your
Grottoes you stuck out your tongues at the seas
Dancing before their horses
Then beating with your angel wings
And I listened to those rival choirs

A weapon O my uneasy head
I wave a deflowered foliage
To ward off the tepid breath
That exhales against my great cries
From your terrible mute mouths

The marvel is over there
Compared to it what are you worth
The blood spurts from my otelles
At my aspect and I admit it
The murder of my double pride

If the boatmen have rowed
Far from the lips at water’s surface
A thousand and a thousand charmed animals
Sniff the road to meet
My well-beloved wounds

Their bestial starry eyes
Light up my compassion
What matters wisdom equal
To that of the constellations
For I alone night who star you

Sirens at last I descend
Into a greedy grotto I love
Your eyes The steps are slippery
In the distance how you become dwarves
No longer attract any passerby

In the attentive and well-taught
I saw our forests leaf out
Sea the sun gargles itself
Where the sailors desired
That yards and masts turn green again

I descend and the firmament
Has very quickly turned into a jellyfish
Since I blaze atrociously
That my arms alone are the excuses
And the torches of my torment

Birds you stuck out your tongues at the seas
Yesterday’s sun has rejoined me
The otelles bleed us
In the sirens’ nest far
From the herd of oblong stars

Guillaume Apollinaire

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